Kansas City With the Russian Accent, at kcmeesha.com, is the Web journal of a Russian Jewish expatriate who came to Kansas City in 1992. Meesha V. outwrites half the local native-English-speaking bloggers and outcharms most of the others with an original voice and smart, funny asides and observations that could occur only to a cultural latecomer. It doesn’t hurt that the anonymous author kicked off the first entry with jokes about the Iron Curtain and a repudiation of deeply unfunny Russian comic Yakov Smirnoff. Documenting life in Kansas City, Meesha also tells some pretty harrowing stories about growing up during the Soviet era, including the anxiety and fear he confronted during his mandatory induction into the Russian army at age 18, waiting to find out if he’d be stationed near his home or sent to Afghanistan. With one foot in the metro and one in Rossiyskaya Federatsiya, Kcmeesha.com is Kansas City’s best blog this year.
Wow! I am at a loss of words (it’s not that hard for me). I didn’t know that I was even being considered. I am not going to deny that this was a pleasant surprise. I don’t really think I am the best; it’s just that while much better bloggers switched to twittering one-liners I am still here typing away, mostly because I am too cheap to pay for the internet for my phone. I would like to thank many people who read this blog and especially the ones who collectively left over 1,700 comments over the past year. I know it’s not that many and The Readers’ Choice Best Blogger TKC (Congratulations, Tony!) gets that many in a day, but I appreciate every one of you who took the time to comment, participate in a poll or a caption contest, thanks for not being anonymous. I would like especially to thank XO because this site is more or less an extension of my comments on his blog almost a year ago. Many other bloggers who are linked here and even more in my Reader serve as the daily inspiration and also as my imaginary friends. Meeting and corresponding with many of you over the past year made worthwhile all the time that I spend in front of my laptop, 10 lbs of gained weight and no personal life.
This honor just goes to prove that the American Dream is still there for anyone who wants it, it just changed a little. Yes, I got here dreaming about owning a mansion, nice cars, maybe a yacht with a beach house and a small private plane; I got none of these things, and yet I can’t complain: having all this would have made me just another one of many rich people with awesome, care-free, amazing lives full of leisure, travel and entertainment. Instead, I am one of a few, but few of the best.
Every child in Johnson County, KS knows that bus is bad. Our relationship with the bus service ends on the first day we are able to get a driver’s license and our fine-leather-clad feet never step through a bus door again. From there on, our asses are firmly planted in the leather seats of overpriced imported cars which are mandatory in Johnson County. Once in a while we see a bus on a street or a highway and we give its invisible passengers the same look a person gives to a plumber who is about to go elbow-deep into a full toilet bowl. We distrust party buses, avoid shuttles, shun trolleys and only begrudgingly use charter buses but only when no one we know can see us.
All that said, why are we investing over $50 million into improving the bus service?
For people who pride themselves on being independent, Americans too often become victims of the herd mentality. Whether it’s the approval of the war in Iraq, voting for Obama or wearing Crocs, Americans latch onto some absurd idea and follow it all the way to the disastrous end. The common problem is that important and sometimes life-and-death decisions are made based on emotions and very little knowledge and common sense. To me, the question of the light rail in Kansas City falls into the same category. No one in the right state of mind would even propose the light rail as an option which would solve any transportation problems in this city. Instead of just being dismissed as a bad idea, huge waste of money and totally worthless as a means of commute, this issue is constantly being discussed, written about, voted on, studied and even taken to courts.
Kansas City has a rich history of public transportation which allowed the public to move around town before cars took over as the main commuter option.
I, of course, didn’t get a chance to see this. I was happily growing up Behind the Iron Curtain where I had a chance to ride every imaginable kind of public transport from bus to tram, from subway to trolleybus, from taxi to water ferry.It wasn’t very comfortable but it got the job done. It was crowded, hot, sometimes smelly and noisy but it allowed an average person to get around town with relatively little wait, not too much walking and very cheaply. And that’s what I consider the major criteria of the usable public transport system:
Cost. Some people will overpay just to be “green”. For the majority it has to make fiscal sense.
Convenience. I am not driving 10 miles to the terminal just to ride the light rail for 7 miles. It has to be within walking distance or it’s too much hustle.
Coverage. I am not interested in the A to B ride, unless I live in A and I am going to B. Public transportation system should blanket the area with routes that cross each other and allow passengers to jump from route to route.
Constant circulation. This is crucial – I don’t want to know bus schedules, I just want to know that the bus will show up within 10-20 minutes even if I just missed the last one. One fear that I have is to be stranded somewhere with no chance to get out.
Security. I want to arrive in one piece with all of my belongings.
In the next few installments I will try to describe the public transportation system I grew up with. It wasn’t perfect but it worked. More than I can say about the light rail that never will.
After a cup of malted milk, the only thing you want is some square-dancing. The kid seated next to the door looks like he is doing community service, the girl standing on the right stuck her tongue out; must be thirsty for some of that milk.
Repatriation of Allied war prisoners. Allied war prisoners, freed by the Soviet troops head for the port of Odessa where a ship is ready to take them to their home countries. Photo by M.Ozersky. SIB photo
service
I was born and raised in Odessa but I’ve never heard any mention of a transit POW camp for American and other nationals. I knew that the German POW’s were used to rebuild the city after the war well into the 50’s, but the Allied soldiers were sent home relatively shortly after the Victory Day.
Interestingly enough, Odessa is mentioned in the correspondence between Stalin and Roosevelt in relation to the POW issue.
There is also an order from NKVD concerning the prisoners. (*source, translation mine).
Partial Extract
Copy №1
Order of the NKVD №0015
January 8, 1946, Moscow.
On the partial release of the POW’s from camps and special hospitals.
In furtherance of the directive (telegram) from NKVD № 2943 from December 16,1945 I order:
1.All POW Czechs, Yugoslavs, Italians, Dutch, Belgians, Danes, Swiss, Luxembourgers, Bulgarians, Turks, Norwegians, Swedes, Greeks, Frenchmen, Americans and Britons, who are currently located in separate camps in accordance with the directive of NKVD № 3943, to be moved to Lustdorf (near Odessa) to the repatriation camp № 186. …
3.This order does not apply to persons who served in the Waffen SS, SA, SD, Gestapo officers and members of other secret police.
Signed: The People’s Commissar of Internal Affairs S. Kruglov.
During 1945, the Soviet Army overran, in two sequences, German camps that held US POWs. The experiences of the prisoners released by the Soviets was considerably different depending on whether they were liberated during late-January to early-February in Poland and East Prussia, or during April and May in central and northern Germany.
Most of the US prisoners in the early sequence came from Oflag 64 at Schubin, Poland, Stalag III-C near Kustrin, Poland, with a few from Stalag II-B, Hammerstein, Germany.
The Soviets evacuated these men to the east and most of them eventually came out through Odessa. They comprise a relatively small portion, about ten percent, of all American prisoners that were in Soviet hands; contemporary accounts have 2,858 evacuated by way of Odessa. But because of the smaller numbers, the more direct involvement of the US Military Mission to Moscow, and the somewhat more routine evacuation procedures, the Odessa evacuation is better documented and more frequently written about than the liberation of POWs which took place later in central Germany.
American POWs freed by the Red Army were in the main treated very shabbily and came to hate the Russians. Many of them were robbed of watches, rings, and other personal possessions which they had managed to retain even after extended periods of captivity under the Germans. Their food at Odessa was very poor, consisting mainly of soup with cucumbers in it and sour black bread. The Russians generally tended to throw obstacles in the war of repatriation, frequently calling off shipments at the last minute and insisting always upon clearance from Moscow for every prisoner released. American POWs at Odessa were guarded by Russian soldiers carrying loaded rifles with fixed bayonets, and Russian security was more stringent there than German security had been in the various Stalags and Oflags.
This is all the information I was able to find about the role of Odessa in the lives of many American Prisoners of War, but it was interesting to discover a bit of American history involving my own hometown.
